Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-07-14
A GOOC HOG.HOUSE,
Directions for Erecting Substantial. Con-
venient and Yet Simple Structure.

well be dispensed with on any farm.
l have built six for my own use since I
first began farming, and think that in
the later built ones l have combined
convenience and economy, and will tell
what kind of a hog-house I like and
would build.
The first Lighthouses 1 built were
made twelve feet wide, but have now
had four that were eight feet wide, and
l find this width ample to accommo-
date as mary hogs as can eat at the
trough, and so I recommend a house of
this width 1t is sometimes desirable
TO move house a short distance. and
so usually make them eight by six
teen feet. and find that three men can
roll one of them from fifty to one hum
dred feet in few hours if it is thought
best to change the location. A house
eight by sixteen feet will accommodate
from twelve to fifteen store hogs
through the winter, and is large enough
to fatten ten large hogs in. The bill of
lumber for a house of this size built as
/ direct, is rs follows:
Feet.
Two stills, 6 by inches. and feet long 4s
Five 1oist, by 10 inches, and 16 feet long 1874
Floor and lining .... on
-Four corner posts, by inches. .. 2i
rates ana nall ties. so
Nine rafters, by inches, and feet long 81
Siding, inch boards 1886
ohealhlhg..-... OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 100
Total amount of lumber required. ~ a5G
This, at s1.75 per 100 feet. will cost
Sic. 70, to which add 1000 shingles at
IS. Is. and 81 for nails ard hinges, and
1t brings the total cost of material for
the house to S21.4S. The farmer, if he
will follow my directions, need not
employ a carpenter to build such a
house, and two hands can complete
one in two days or less.
After the found alton is ready-which
may be locust posts set we'll in the
ground, powders or masonry if pre-
ferred-place your short sills across
the ends and level them, and then set
the floor joists on the stills. so that the
two outside ones will come exactly to
the ends of the sills. Bridge the joist
in the center and then lay the floor
A floor of inch lumber, laid double, is
much better than one of two-inch
PAN1hho, StINt " III SOSG ltSS. lOI tilc llu-
ing can be laid with cracks three or
four inches wide
After the floor is laid. cut your posts
four and a half feet high for the rear
and seven and half for the front.
Saw them perfectly square at both
ends, set them up at the corners, and
fasten them by what the carpenters
call 'toe-nailing;" them spike a two
by four studding to the tops, front and
rear For plate, put up your two
end ratters, setting them exactly flush
with the sills, so that the weather.
boarding will be nailed to the sill at
the bottom and the rafter at the top.
You will need one run of nail-ties,
which can be ship-lapped to the posts,
and when these are up you are ready
to cover the building.
Use siding fourteen feet long cover
ing it, and it will cut one length for
the front and one for the rear. The
roof of this house slopes but one way,
and it is best to have the front-or
high part of the roof-toward either
the west or south. If the roof is made
to project n little, and finish with a
light cornice, it will present quite
good appearance.
The hogs will sometimes keep the
main house clean themselves, but if
they do not it is easy to clean it out
and throw it into the outside pen.
This outside pen should be so located
that a wagon can be driven or backed
mp to it easily, to clean it out. az it
will need to be emptied frequently.
and if it is placed at the end of the
house instead of the rear, you should
use stills sixteen feet long and joist
eight feet, so as to have the floor
boards run lengthwise of the house, as
it will be much easier to clean it out if
the manure can be scraped lengthwise
of the boards than if the shovel must
run across them.
Make q good trough and fasten it Sc
curely. have never found any thing
better than good V-trough; the front
of it should be of two-inch lumber. but
the back part, which comes against the
side of the building smayobe inch. 1t
is next to impossible to keep hogs
clean, and the house free from bad
odors, if they are confined to a single
floor. but by making an outside pen.
with board floor, from twelve to
eighteen inches lower than the feeding
floor, and keeping it always supplied
with an absorbent, / have no difficulty
in keepin my Lighthouses from becom-
ing malodorous. So always raise the
floor of the main house, and then lay
floor of nearly the same size either
at the rear or one end of the honse. As
this floor need not be laid double, it
will take but 12S feet of lumber to make
it. and it can rest on any cheap old
thrown fiat on the ground for
mud sllls Enclose it with a SUBJ
stantial fence, made without cracks,
and furnish the hogs some old straw
or corn fodder as often as they require
it, and they will enjoy working it
over. and will shred it up and make
good manure of it sooner than any
other stock.
Every hog house of this size should
be provided with a movable partition
so that it can be divided into two parts
when desired. as an apartment eight
feet square is large enough for a sow
to farrow in. Two short posts, two
by four inches, can be set up, front